Alabama Athletics
Believe It Or Not, Alabama Basketball Just Set a New Program Record
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Coming into Alabama basketball's game against Kentucky Saturday morning, the Crimson Tide set a program record in its 90-69 win over Mississippi State.
Wednesday night against the Bulldogs, Alabama registered its fifth-consecutive game with 90 points or more, a program record.
To put that feat into perspective, the Crimson Tide had just one 90-point game a year ago, and have only had 10 in the last 12 years, dating back to the 2008-2009 season.
All of this has resulted in Alabama winning six of its last eight games, sending the Crimson Tide rocketing into SEC play.
Alabama head coach said that scoring 90 points routinely has been his intention from the get-go.
"I don't know if I expected it—it's what I want, though," Oats said. "I mean we want to get up and down and shoot a lot of threes and space the floor and, you know, put points up. We want teams playing at our pace so yeah it's great that we scored.
"[The] guys are buying in. It's a lot more fun to play this way."
The current 90-point streak is just the icing on the cake of Alabama's recent success on offense. The Crimson Tide has jumped to No. 1 in the SEC and No. 4 nationally in scoring offense with 84.4 points per game.
Currently, the team is on pace to set yet another school record in single-season points. Through 14 games, Alabama has scored 1,181 points. With 18 games minimum remaining in the season, the Crimson Tide is within reach of 2,761-point season set by the program in 2000-2001.
A high contribution to Alabama's offensive firepower is its success in the 3-point game. The team leads the SEC and is No. 3 in the NCAA in 3-pointers made per game with 11.1, and ranks second in the SEC and 38th nationally in 3-point shooting percentage at .372 percent.
This is on track to break yet another offensive program record. Through 14 games, Alabama is 146-419 from beyond the arc and is on track to break its record of 259 of 763.
Sophomore guard Kira Lewis, Jr., who is currently one point behind junior guard John Petty, Jr., for the team-lead in points with 233, says that while the offense is ticking, there are still improvements to be made.
"The expectation is to score as many points as we can," Lewis said. "But you know, we gotta correct a lot of mistakes in the future.
"We know we make mistakes. [We just need to] admit them and get better."
With its offense in tow, Alabama (9-6, 1-1 SEC) now shifts its focus to No. 14 Kentucky (11-3, 2-0 SEC). As a team, Kentucky is outscoring its competition an average of +12.5 points per game and is shooting 46.4 percent from the floor. The Wildcats are also shooting 78.2 percent from the free-throw line which tops the SEC and ranks ninth in the country.
The Crimson Tide beat the Wildcats 77-75 last season in its SEC opener. However, Alabama is 10-57 all-time against Kentucky in Lexington and has lost eight straight.
While the Crimson Tide will have its hands full in Lexington Saturday (11 a.m. CT on ESPN) but with its offense being on the current surge that it is, it will be one of the better SEC matchups of the weekend to watch.
Nate Oats had one final comment regarding its matchup against the Wildcats:
"They're a really good experienced group that we're going to have to play really well to beat."
